Minnesota (MN) SQLSaturday 2023 #1054 – Sep 30

Hello #SQLFamily, we are very excited that this year we will be back in-person for the Minnesota SQLSaturday event that will be held once again at Saint Paul College on September 30th SQL Saturday Minnesota 2023 (#1054).

The schedule for the event has been posted and is available to see here and there are just over 30 sessions and a fantastic line up of speakers coming to present.

I will be presenting on “Unraveling the Microsoft Fabric for the Power BI User” and the description for that session is –

“Are you a Power BI developer? Have you heard about Microsoft Fabric? What are all of these new ‘Data’ experiences – Data Factory, Data Engineering, Data Science, Data Warehousing, oh my and other items such as Data Activator and Real-Time Analytics? Wow! Where did Power BI go?

In this session we will go under the covers and unravel the Microsoft Fabric to help educate Power BI developers on the new capabilities available and provide some guidance on how to get started and skilled up on using these new experiences.”

And here is the link to register for the main event on Saturday as well SQL Saturday Minnesota 2023 (#1054) Registration, Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 8:00 AM | Eventbrite

We look forward to seeing everyone at the event in-person again!

PASSMN September 2018 Meeting

The next Minnesota SQL Server User Group meeting is tomorrow, Tuesday, September 18. This month we are going to try something new and are going to have some of our upcoming MN SQLSaturday speakers attend and do a preview / introduction to their talk which will be on Saturday, October 6.

Be sure to register so that your name badge will be available for you at the Microsoft Technology Center when you arrive and so that we will have an accurate headcount for ordering food.

The sponsor for this month’s meeting is PASSMN.

Location: 3601 West 76th Street, Suite 600 Edina, MN 55437

Agenda:

• 3:30-4:00 : Registration, Networking, and Food
• 4:00-4:10 : Kickoff / Announcements
• 4:10-5:25 : SQLSaturday #796 MN Preview (multiple speakers)
• 5:25-5:35 : Closing
• 6:30-7:30 : Pinstripes social hour and bocce ball

Please click here for meeting details and to RSVP for the event

Presentation

SQLSaturday #796 MN Preview

Abstract: For this event we are going to have some of the speakers attend and provide a brief introduction to their session topic that they will be presenting and answer any questions to prepare everyone for the big event in October.

SQLSaturday is a free training event for Microsoft Data Platform professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server, Business Intelligence and Analytics. This event will be held on Oct 6, 2018 at Saint Paul College, 235 Marshall Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 55102.

Don’t forget to register and secure your spot for the SQLSaturday event:)
http://www.sqlsaturday.com/796/eventhome.aspx

Speakers:

Joshuha Owen, Dan English, Ross McNeely, Eric Zierdt, Rick Bielawski, Chris Kramer, Tim Plas, and more speakers will be added, stay tuned…

Social Hour:

We are planning on meeting over at Pinstripes in Edina afterwards to network, play bocce ball, and have some apps and refreshments.

Bocce ball reservation is from 6:30 to 7:30. Feel free to show up after the meeting ahead of time and socialize prior to the bocce ball.

3849 Gallagher Dr, Edina, MN 55435
https://pinstripes.com/edina-minneapolis

MN SQLSaturday #796 Pre-Cons

We are just a few weeks out from #sqlsatmn and over 250 have registered! Don’t miss out on securing your spot, register today! 

http://www.sqlsaturday.com/796/eventhome.aspx

Checkout pre-con events and the earl-bird pricing while it lasts:)  Early-bird pricing on pre-cons ends 9/14, so sign-up today and save:)

We have paid, full-day pre-conference sessions on Friday, October 5th, 2018 (also at Saint Paul College).

These full day training sessions are a great value, current early-bird pricing of only $99 plus fees! (early-bird pricing is good through Friday, September 14 and then the price will increase to $125)

Click the links below to get more details about the pre-con training events:

• Joshuha Owen, Steve Hughes – The Modern Enterprise Data Warehouse in Azure
• Brian Larson – Powering Up with Power BI
• Rick Lowe – Keeping Your DBA Happy. Why Some Practices Drive Admins Crazy.
• Ed Leighton-Dick – Data Security for the Cloud

You must register and pay through Eventbrite for these pre-cons.

#sqlpass

PASSMN July 2018 Meeting

The next Minnesota SQL Server User Group meeting is on Tuesday, July 17. This month Mathew Phan from Quest will be doing a presentation on DevOps and NoSQL: The Two Trends Impacting Database Professionals.

Be sure to register so that your name badge will be available for you at the Microsoft Technology Center when you arrive and so that we will have an accurate headcount for ordering food.

The sponsor for this month’s meeting is Quest.

Location: 3601 West 76th Street, Suite 600 Edina, MN 55437

Agenda:

• 3:30-4:00 : Registration, Networking, and Food
• 4:00-4:10 : Kickoff / Announcements
• 4:10-5:25 : DevOps and NoSQL (Mathew Phan)
• 5:25-5:35 : Closing

Please click here for meeting details and to RSVP for the event

Presentation

DevOps and NoSQL: The Two Trends Impacting Database Professionals

Abstract: In this one hour session, Mathew Phan from Quest Software will discuss two technology trends greatly disrupting database professionals: DevOps and non-relational databases. First, he will go over what DevOps is, the value it adds, and what you need to know in order to adapt if your organization moves in that direction. Then he will discuss the rise of non-relational databases, why they’re being used to store huge amounts of data, the best scenarios to apply them, and how you can merge your knowledge of traditional relational databases like SQL Server in this new technology. During the course of the presentation, he will briefly touch on a couple of products from Quest Software that can greatly assist in getting users up to speed in both of these trends.

About Mathew: Mathew Phan began his career as a technical support engineer for Toad for Oracle after graduating from the University of California, Irvine, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer and information science. Mat has devoted his entire 12-year career with the Toad family of database solutions and held various positions helping to shape the direction and growth of Toad. Early in his tenure, his focus was on Oracle databases from a developer point of view. Now as a systems consultant, he continues to work with customers to build effective solutions that meet their needs.

How to: Build a SQL Server Dashboard with Power BI

NOTE (2/25/18): one thing to mention is that this example will work with SQL 2016+. in my example the script I use to get the database table information uses the DROP IF EXISTS and that was introduced in SQL 2016. If you check the comments there is a link to the SQL file that contains the four scripts that are being used.

A couple of years ago when Power BI Desktop was released I did a blog post on How to: Build a SQL Server Dashboard with Power BI Desktop.  Today I will be presenting to the local MN SQL Server User Group on this very topic.

The example I will be doing is an enhanced version of the original blog post I did back in 2015, wow! (seems like just yesterday)

This by no means is a complete solution to cover everything a DBA or accidental DBA would need, but it is a starting point to show the possibilities and get you thinking.

The updated version is based on the February 2018 release of Power BI Desktop. I have included table information, current connections (based on last refresh), drillthrough, and bookmarks.

The Power BI Dashboard that I created in the Power BI Service is for the most part the same:

For the reports I made a modification to the Database Detail to included bookmarks and created a toggle button to switch between a table and chart. Nothing too fancy and I simply created the toggle button images with the Snagit Editor, so pretty basic.

Then I added two additional pages for Table Info (has Drillthrough filter defined for Database Name) and Connections.

For the Drillthrough if you are on the Dashboard or Detail pages you can right-click on a database in a visual and see the Drillthrough option that will allow you to jump to the Table Info page and automatically filter the results based on your selection.

The presentation materials as well as a Power BI Desktop Template file are available for you to download from my OneDrive here – Power BI SQL Dashboard files.

When you open up the Power BI template file you will be asked for the name of the SQL Server Instance you want to connect to, click load, and you might be prompted about encryption with the connection as well.

You will just need to make sure that you have the necessary permissions to run the queries I have included;)

Be sure to check out the presentation materials, I have included a bunch of good resources to check out as well at the end.

Enjoy and hope you like it and I hope it gets you thinking about the possibilities with using Power BI.

PASSMN February 2018 Meeting

The next Minnesota SQL Server User Group meeting is on Tuesday, February 20. This month I will be doing a presentation on how to use Power BI Desktop to build reports off SQL Server database information and creating a dashboard.

Be sure to register so that your name badge will be available for you at the Microsoft Technology Center when you arrive and so that we will have an accurate headcount for ordering food.

The sponsor for this month’s meeting is DallasDBAs.

Location: 3601 West 76th Street, Suite 600 Edina, MN 55437

Agenda:

• 3:30-4:00 : Registration, Networking, and Food
• 4:00-4:10 : Kickoff / Announcements
• 4:10-5:25 : How to: Build a SQL Server Dashboard with Power BI (Dan English)
• 5:25-5:35 : Closing

Please click here for meeting details and to RSVP for the event

Presentation

How to: Build a SQL Server Dashboard with Power BI

Abstract: This session will provide an overview of Power BI tools including the Desktop, Service, and Mobile application. We will use Power BI to pull some information about SQL Server databases such as the count, sizes, last backup, recovery model, and file information. We will explore some of the recent capabilities that were added to Power BI Desktop like drill through and bookmarks. The example will be provided after the meeting so that you can review the code, try it out, and enhance the reports on your own.

About Dan: Dan is the Sr. Data Warehouse Architect at Constellation, Inc., a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, speaker, author, technical editor, and community leader. He has been developing with Microsoft technologies for over 20 years, and over 13 years with Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence. He has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5 and now using 2017! Dan has videos on YouTube and Vimeo, is blogger, and tweets. Dan is the group leader for the PASS Business Analytics Virtual Group and the Director of Technology for the MN SQL Server User Group.

PASSMN January 2018 Meeting

The next Minnesota SQL Server User Group meeting is on Tuesday, January 16. This month Brian Glas will be doing a presentation on the impact of GDPR on database design and controls.

Be sure to register so that your name badge will be available for you at the Microsoft Technology Center when you arrive and so that we will have an accurate headcount for ordering food.

 

The sponsors for this month’s meeting are nVisium and LRS Consulting Services.

 

 

Location: 3601 West 76th Street, Suite 600 Edina, MN 55437

Agenda:

• 4:00-4:10 : Kickoff / Announcements
• 4:10-5:25 : GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) overview and impact on database design and controls (Brian Glas)
• 5:25-5:35 : Closing

Please click here for meeting details and to RSVP for the event

Presentation

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) overview and impact on database design and controls

Abstract: The new European privacy law (General Data Protection Regulation or GDRP) is due to take effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR is taking privacy law to a new level and will require changes for many companies and applications. We will cover a high level overview of GDPR and potential impacts on application and database design and controls.

About Brian: Brian Glas is the Director of Strategic Services at nVisium. He spends the majority of his time working with the Software Assurance Maturity Model (SAMM), building security programs and related processes, and working on Architecture Reviews/Threat Modeling.

MN SQLSaturday #682–Oct 7

The schedule has been posted for this year’s Minnesota SQLSaturday event which will be held on October 7 at Saint Paul College.

I will be speaking in the afternoon on Analyzing Healthcare Open Data with Power BI.

In this session we will explore and evaluate Healthcare data that is freely available to the public. You will see how easily we can consume and integrate the data to analyze and investigate. In the demos you will see some of the latest enhancements and features that have been included with Power BI such as ArcGIS (Esri) maps, forecasting, Top N filtering, grouping / binning, clustering, custom R visuals, and maybe a few more along the way. If you are interested in Open Data, Healthcare, or have to perform a lot of data manipulation in Excel or other tools to provide analysis for your job then this is the session for you. Leverage the free capabilities of Power BI, advanced analytics, and help simplify your everyday workload and wow your boss!

Hope to see you there!

PASSMN November 2013 Meeting

The next Minnesota SQL Server User Group meeting is on Tuesday, November 19. This month Mark Vaillancourt will be doing a presentation on the art of presenting.

Be sure to register so that your name badge will be available for you at the Microsoft Technology Center when you arrive.

The sponsor for this month’s meeting is Digineer.

Location: 3601 West 76th Street, Suite 600 Edina, MN 55437

Agenda:

• 4:00-4:30 : Registration / Networking / Announcements
• 4:30-4:45 : DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting by Mark Vaillancourt
• 6:45-7:00 : Prizes / Giveaways

Please click here for meeting details and to RSVP for the event

Presentation

DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting

Abstract: Is there a great difference in the brain chemistry of someone fleeing a hungry mountain lion and someone presenting to a group of colleagues in a corporate board room? The answer is: NO. Over the past decade, a lot has been learned about the chemistry of the brain and why humans react the way we do to events in our environment. The concept of EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is a compelling and growing concept that applies this knowledge in a set of learnable, improvable skills for leading human beings. While EQ is often applied to corporate leadership, the parallels to presenting are fantastic. This session will explain the basics of EQ and demonstrate how you can apply it to make your presentations better in the following areas: * Crafting better slide decks * Preparing yourself for presenting * Delivering your content * Dealing with the unexpected Understanding and practicing the concepts of EQ can make your presentations a better experience for everyone in the room–including you

About Mark: Mark Vaillancourt is an Information Management consultant for Digineer, a Microsoft partner based in Plymouth, MN. He has been working with SQL Server for 5 years and holds the MCITP – Business Intelligence Developer 2008 certification. With a background in Theater and Improvised Comedy, Mark makes sure that his presentations are both informative and fun.

PASSMN August 2013 Meeting

The next Minnesota SQL Server User Group meeting is on Tuesday, August 20. This month SQL Server MVP and Microsoft Certified Master Joe Sack will be presenting on resolving performance issues.

Be sure to register so that your name badge will be available for you at the Microsoft Technology Center when you arrive.

The sponsor for this month’s meeting is RBA.

Location: 3601 West 76th Street, Suite 600 Edina, MN 55437

Live Meeting:

• URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=SRR9DN&role=attend&pw=zd%3F9c.2KJ
• Meeting ID: SRR9DN
• Entry Code: zd?9c.2KJ

Agenda:

• 4:30-5:00 : Registration / Networking / Announcements
• 5:00-6:00 : Performance Issue Patterns by Joe Sack
• 6:00-6:15 : Prizes / Giveaways

Please click here for meeting details and to RSVP for the event

Presentation

Performance Issue Patterns by Joe Sack

Abstract: While a SQL Server professional may encounter various one-off situations over the course of a career, there are also several shared patterns and scenarios.  In this session we’ll walk through a few of these patterns interactively – where I’ll reproduce the issue and we’ll work through the scenario until we get to the root cause.

About Joe: Joe Sack is a Principal Consultant with SQLskills. He has worked as a SQL Server professional since 1997 and has supported and developed for SQL Server environments in financial services, IT consulting, manufacturing, retail and the real estate industry.  Prior to joining SQLskills he worked at Microsoft as a Premier Field Engineer supporting very large enterprise customer environments. He was responsible for providing deep SQL Server advisory services, training, troubleshooting and ongoing solutions guidance. His areas of expertise include performance tuning, scalability, T-SQL development and high-availability.  In 2006 Joe earned the “Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2005” certification and in 2008 he earned the “Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008” certification. In 2009 he took over responsibility for the entire SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master program and held that post until 2011.